African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina launched a youth advisory group yesterday (Tuesday) to provide solutions for job creation in Africa.
He highlighted the need for the new Presidential Youth Advisory Group as the continent was currently facing an unemployment crisis among its youth which he said could give rise to serious social, economic, political and security challenges unless employment opportunities were created for them.
“If we fix the youth unemployment challenge, Africa will gain 10-20% annual growth,” said Adesina. “That means Africa’s GDP will grow by $500 billion per year for the next 30 years [and] Africa’s per capita income will rise by 55% every year to the year 2050.”
He pointed out that of the 13 million youths entering the labour market each year, only 3 million (about 33%) were in wage employment while the rest were either underemployed or in vulnerable employment.
“66 million African youths earn less than $2 a day, less than the price of a hamburger,” said Adesina. He added that the annual gap of over 8 million jobs would worsen as the number of youth was expected to double to more than 800 million over the next decades.
The advisory group will comprise nine members under the age of 40 from Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, the DRC, Rwanda, Zambia and the USA.
